September 12, 2019Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Everyone is wounded — that’s the overarching theme of The Heal, writer/director Aaron Posner’s ironical, imaginative play about living with pain and choosing to do the right thing even if you’re unclear just what that thing might be. Read more… Now running through September 28

September 11, 2019Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen In his sixth one-man show, Tony winner John Leguizamo is back on stage with Latin History for Morons, a timely and engaging piece that is part comedy special, part solo revue, and part poignant academic lesson. Read more… Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw John Leguizamo has a remarkable knackRead More

September 11, 2019Lovell Estell III — Stage Raw Stephen Adly Guirgis has a knack for scripting characters that “stick” with you, and a keen ear for dialogue that is, by turns, wrenching and humorous. In this dramedy, Guigis creates a gallery of raucous misfits who are brought together by the death of a beloved (and feared) mentor,Read More

September 8, 2019Erin Conley – On Stage & Screen When the lights rise on Handjob, a play by Erik Patterson currently in its world premiere at the Echo Theater Company in Los Angeles, we meet Keith (Steven Culp). Keith is a gay, white writer, and he has hired Eddie (Michael Rishawn), a younger black man, to provideRead More

September 3, 2019Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In The Picture of Dorian Grey, Oscar Wilde’s title character makes a Faustian pact to preserve his beauty at the price of his soul, transitioning, in the course of the narrative, from a naïve, guilt-free youth to a cruel and vicious narcissist. The book speaks to the vanity of vanityRead More

September 1, 2019Terry Morgan - Talkin’ Broadway When The Witch of Edmonton (written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford) premiered in 1621, its tale of a woman selling her soul to the devil to gain revenge on her neighbors was played as a tragic drama. Jen Silverman’s new version of the story, simply titled Witch,Read More

August 20, 2019Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw When it comes to buffets, it seems the early bird does catch the worm — or at least, the early bird gets to eat her food before anyone else touches it. This is the conclusion that Nora (Jean Gilpin) and Ivy (Jayne Taini) reach in Dana Schwartz’s Early Birds. MovingRead More

Archive for Antaeus Company

Boredom is contagious in Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, now receiving an energetic revival at the Antaeus Company. The locus of the ennui is Yelena (Linda Park), the gorgeous, restless young wife of Serebryakov (Lawrence Pressman), an elderly professor who has retired to his family’s provincial estate. Read more…

Margaret Gray – LA Times

As a child, I couldn’t understand why anybody would attend a production of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya”; surely not even the most pretentious adult would choose to watch gloomy Russians with interchangeable names hurt each other’s feelings and complain about having wasted their lives for as many as three hours at a stretch.

The Antaeus Company is well known for its facility with classical plays, such as King Lear and The Crucible. What may not be so well known is that the group often tries to spotlight excellent plays that are a bit less famous, such as Mrs. Warren’s Profession or The Liar. Following that tradition, Antaeus’ new presentation is Alice Childress’s play, Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black And White. The production is accomplished and enjoyable, with terrific performances, but a couple of under-motivated turns in the plot kept me from completely believing in the play. Read more…

Neal Weaver – Arts In LA

When novelist and playwright Alice Childress (1916–1994) wrote Wedding Band in 1962, most producers found it too hot to handle. Its tale of a love affair between a black woman and a white man had the potential to alienate black audiences and white audiences. And its raw account of racism in America was offensive to many. Read more…

Arthur Miller’s play, first produced on Broadway in 1953, was Miller’s impassioned response to McCarthyism and the witch-hunts launched by the House Un-American Activities Committee. But the fact that it has become an oft-produced American classic and the basis for two films (including a French version with screenplay by Jean-Paul Sartre) reminds us that it’s not just a political screed.Read more…

Hoyt Hilsman – Huffington Post

The distinguished Antaeus Company, L.A.’s classic theater ensemble of extraordinarily talented actors, presents Arthur Miller’s tale of the Salem witch trials, his parable of mass hysteria and the dangers of theocracy, or any blind ideology, for that matter. Co-directors Armin Shimerman and Geoffrey Wade guide two casts, who perform the play on various dates with skill and imagination. Read more

Terry Morgan – LAIST

Much has been made over the years about how Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible was paralleling the Salem witch trials to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, and while that is certainly true, it does the play a disservice to think that’s all it is.Read more…